1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to silicon (Si) optical benches, and particularly to high frequency operational silicon optical benches for packaging optical communication or photonic devices.
2. Technical Background
Silicon optical benches (SiOB) are known and have been widely used to package photonic devices such as optical receiver modules and optical transmitter modules which combine and interconnect optical and electronic components (opto-electronic). In general, a silicon optical bench is a micro-optical system that includes one or more optical components that are fabricated on a silicon wafer by micro-mechanical technology. The optical components include optical mirrors, optical lenses, optical switches, and optical waveguides.
The increasing demand for bandwidth and data throughput of such opto-electronic modules leads to continuously increasing the desired operational frequency and speed of such modules, such as the high speed of 10 Gbits/s (or Gb/s) for OC192 modules and 40 Gbits/s for OC768 modules, as industry standards. Hence, there is a need for the development of higher speed components which can propagate the high speed signals without excessive transmission loss, such as a 40 Gbit/s optical module fabricated on a SiOB that can be easily and cost-effectively fabricated.
One aspect of the present invention is an opto-electronic packaged platform that includes a high resistivity substrate having an optical waveguide mounting portion, an optical device mounting portion, and an electrical waveguide portion having a conductor pattern and an underlying capacitance for forming a high frequency propagating transmission line.
In another aspect, the present invention includes removing the dielectric coated on top of the high resistivity substrate between the gap spacing of the coplanar waveguide conductors grown on top of the coated substrate.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the detailed description which follows, and in part will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art from that description or recognized by practicing the invention as described herein, including the detailed description which follows, the claims, as well as the appended drawings.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are merely exemplary of the invention, and are intended to provide an overview or framework for understanding the nature and character of the invention as it is claimed. The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate various embodiments of the invention, and together with the description serve to explain the principles and operation of the invention.